Adam Saunders’ Re-Election is best described as a mix of Election and Billy Madison: a lighthearted comedy following a 40-something man who returns to high school in a bid to become class president, redeeming himself for the end of his glory days.
We at FandomWire got to speak with the cast of Re-Election — writer-director Adam Saunders, legendary actor Tony Danza, actor Bex Taylor-Klaus, and comedians Rizwan Manji and Kym Whitley — about their clever reinvention of the high school genre.
Re-Election Interview
In Re-Election, the two of you play a father and son. How did you build your chemistry and dynamic?
Tony Danza: Well, for me, it was easy. First of all, he was the boss, so you’ve gotta do the right thing. But it was one of the things that really attracted me to the script, too — that father-son relationship and that great scene. But really, I fell right into it. It wasn’t hard at all.
Adam Saunders: I love this guy. You know, I obviously grew up watching Tony Danza, as everybody on Earth did. And when I got to know him, they say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, but in this case, I’m really glad I have because he’s just so kind.
And on the first day of a movie set, especially when you have somebody of Tony’s stature, and he walks in, everybody looks to him and they see how this is gonna go. And he immediately, in that first scene, set the tone. He said that he was trusting me, he was in my hands, and then everybody followed suit. And the shoot was great, and I give him great credit for that.
Danza: Thank you, Adam. That’s very nice, but it comes to the top.
I think the relationship between the two of you is the emotional core of the movie. Why did you find this to be such an important aspect of this film?
Danza: Well, I think they both have a little bit of codependency, and I also think that the theme of the movie is empathy, and that’s what they have. Both of them have empathy for each other. I think it’s obvious if you watch the movie that not only do they care about each other, but they sort of understand each other’s predicament. And I think that fosters more of a cohesive relationship that we put together.
Saunders: It’s the very first thing we see. We see Jimmy by himself, but the first thing we see him do is take the trash out for his dad, right? That’s the very first action and throughout the movie, he’s doing these things for his dad and ultimately, I won’t ruin the movie, but his dad makes a very selfless choice, which is to Jimmy’s benefit even though Jimmy doesn’t realize it. And yeah, it’s about empathy.
Well, Mr. Danza, Re-Election isn’t your first project that takes place in a school — you made Teach. Did you find this to be a full-circle moment for you?
Danza: Well, I think that’s what’s interesting about it. It is like this throwback movie to the days when we used to do these kinds of movies, and I just thought that Adam wrote a nice script. And aside from the father-son thing, I just like the idea that it shouldn’t always be about you; sometimes it has to be about the other people.
I think one of my favorite quotes in the film is “What do you have to say to teens who think you may not be up to speed on the needs of today’s teens?” As an adult filmmaker, you’ve made a film that, while not necessarily about teens, does heavily involve teens and teen movie tropes. How did you go about making sure that the film is in-touch with today’s youth?
Saunders: Well, I was talking to teens the whole time I was writing it. All my friends who had kids that were teenagers, I would ask them, “We used to go to keg parties,” and the kids would say, “Fam don’t buy friends beer,” or whatever they said. So that was a direct line — they don’t do keg parties. I didn’t know that! So all of these things that are in there were kid-tested or high-school-tested throughout the process. And then I sent the script to two different high school kids as well and asked them to read it and tell me if anything felt not real and then they would give me a lot of notes.
As silly and funny as Re-Election can be, I think there’s a lot of emotional sensitivity in it too. Why did you want the film to have this heart?
Danza: Well, that’s why people watch movies. They’re looking for a connection, and I think that’s what [Adam has] provided. The movie talks about a guy who thinks this moment could have gone this way or gone that way, and because it went this way, I’m here, and maybe I can change it. And I think that’s something that’s not too hard to relate to nowadays for a lot of kids, not only Jimmy’s age but younger.
Saunders: I think that’s right. Like I say, we get caught in this prison of self. We get caught in just thinking about ourselves. You get caught in thinking about “What could I have done? Why did they have that that should be mine?” instead of thinking about them.
And if you start thinking, and this movie is about politics too — and in public service, it’s about serving the public. In this case, the public is the high school. So if you want to serve the public, you’ve got to learn about social media on down. You’ve got to learn about everything. Because you’re representing the public, you’ve got to learn about the public that you’re serving.
Re-Election is, in a way, a political satire set in the world of high school. Why do you think this setting makes such a good microcosm for these themes?
Saunders: Well, because it’s — I don’t want to say harmless, but I want to say it’s less threatening. There’s all these cultural touchstone issues that if you even bring them up, then all of a sudden, everybody’s wrinkles get up, and everyone’s pissed off, and everyone takes their fighting positions.
But if you can keep it in a high school where everyone’s a bit more innocent, then people can kind of go along for the ride and maybe think about the exact same things you wanted them to think about if you’d done the hard-hitting documentary version of it. But also just who I am as a storyteller, I have kind of a light sort of way. I want people to have fun. I don’t want to tell the genocide story. I want to tell the light story. And then maybe people can think about, “Maybe I don’t want to go kill somebody.”
Danza: And I think it’s a better way to make a connection with the audience. It makes it easier for the audience to connect with the movie.
Bex Taylor-Klaus: I mean, have you seen Breakfast Club? It’s classic to tell stories through high schoolers and their trials and tribulations. And if one of those high schoolers happens to be a 42-year-old man, that just makes it silly.
Rizwan Manji: We know this works, right? Election, Mean Girls, Clueless, as they said, Breakfast Club. It’s a great setting for a film, and to add this Billy Madison aspect to it is definitely putting it at a different level, so I’m excited to see what people think of it.
FandomWire: It’s interesting that you mention Billy Madison because I think one thing that works really well for me about Re-Election and not that film is that it’s not mean-spirited. Jimmy’s not just the butt of the joke, and the film is deeply empathetic and relatable at times. Did you find anything in the story to be super relatable?
Whitley: Oh, all of it. Definitely missed opportunities. I think we have all probably experienced that in our lives — sometimes intentionally and sometimes not. Then, you’re not there at that point in your life, or you didn’t think about it and you can’t go back. So, I think that’s what was relatable for me.
Manji: I will say what the movie made me think about specifically with the Jimmy character is like… he did win. But we don’t think of any of that stuff. Even in our own lives, we only think of the negative when there’s so many positive things.
I remember I was on a show in 2010, and it was when we were live tweeting. And people would write so many positive things, and the one person who would write something negative, I could not get it out of my head for like a month. To this day, I’ll be like, “Remember that guy who said…” but I don’t remember any of the people who said nice things. So we have to reframe our minds and give more importance to the good stuff than the bad stuff. You just want to shake him and be like, “Please, Jimmy, why did you take this one moment?”
Re-Election is about a character who goes back to high school in an attempt to recapture his glory days. If you could re-live your glory days, what part of your life would you pick?
Kym Whitley: College. Okay, wait… five years old. When I had no cares in the world, somebody took care of me.
Taylor-Klaus: I guess late teens because joining the industry and trying to figure out how much I was still trying to be in boxes that I thought other people wanted me in versus being authentic and bringing authenticity to characters. I think I’d just push a little harder into the authenticity, go a little harder in that.
Manji: I think I’d go back to my twenties. I just wish I had more fun. I worried about everything, and I just wish I would have been like, “Yeah, I’m in my twenties, let’s have fun.” It’s the wrong advice I’m giving my kids as well. [He laughs.]
FandomWire: Bex, you are a non-binary actor playing a non-binary role — a level of representation that is uncommon in the high school movies that Re-Election pays homage to. Why did you think this was important?
Taylor-Klaus: The queers have always been here. The various flavors of queer have always existed and a lot of times, they’ve just been hinted at or they’ve just been coded. And to have a queer character exist in this world, that queer characters have always existed and be just vibrantly, blatantly who they are is so nice.
Because, like Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club… that there’s a queer. That’s someone who didn’t need the makeover at the end of the movie. She should have just been allowed to be the weirdo and get a girlfriend or something. It feels like all the things we are taking from the old movies, we just get to enhance and make subtext context, finally, and it feels really good. We’ve always been here; we just didn’t always have the language. And now that we have the language, we get to show it to the world through art because what else are you going to do with art?
FandomWire: Bex, you’re not primarily known for your work in comedy, while Rizwan and Kym, you are. Did you find it liberating to work in a cast comprising comedians and non-comedians alike?
Taylor-Klaus: I am such a huge fan. Like Rizwan and Kym and Patty and Tony — I was overwhelmed and beyond honored to be in scenes with them and get to watch them. Like, they’re the kind of people that you sit and watch the monitor when you’re not in a scene with them because you want to see what they’re going to do with this scene. And I want to be that. I’ve always loved comedy, and I’ve always wanted to be like these beautiful people that I’m sitting in a Zoom room with right now, and it was everything and more to be next to them and to watch them work from within the scenes with them and to feel like I could be there next to them and be proud that I got to be there next to them.
Manji: Bex is also a lot funnier than they are. Like the deadpan… I mean, you’ve seen it. When you have cutaways to their look. They know what they’re doing.
FandomWire: Rizwan, your character is the governor of Texas, and while it would have been easy to play a caricature, I think you guys take more subtle jabs. Why did you think this was the approach to take with this character?
Manji: You know, I spoke to Adam prior, and with the accent and the cowboy hat and the facial hair, we were like, “Go all out on that.” And we also wanted to give him a little bit of humanity at the end. I love that aspect. That’s my favorite type of comedy. You can have all this humor, and it can be as broad as you want it to be as long as there’s truth to it. And that’s always the hardest part of it. You can make it all this craziness, but there has to be a truth to the governor. So finding that part of it is the fun; part of the math of it all. How do we make this guy not just a one-dimensional crazy person? So thank you for noticing that.
I think that the sub-90-minute comedy is a bit of a lost art. Why do you think this genre can still be so effective?
Saunders: I don’t think it ever was ineffective. I think for whatever reason, people far above me in the totem pole made decisions that they wanted to base things on IP or on comic books or whatever else, and probably made a lot of money. And I’m sure it works for their business model, but in terms of story — just actual story — I think a lighthearted, 90-minute comedy is still just as effective as it ever was.
Danza: Oh, I agree. I’m thrilled about how this movie is being received because, like I said, it is a throwback, and I’m a throwback, so we’ve got something in common.
Re-Election opens in theaters on October 10.
